Kandahar memorial to fallen Canadian troops to be reconstructed at new DND headquarters

A memorial to fallen Canadian troops that was once at Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan will be rebuilt in the west end of Ottawa by the summer of next year.

The memorial, known as the Kandahar Airfield Cenotaph, will be located on the former Nortel Campus, the new site for the National Defence headquarters.

An exact location on the grounds has not been decided but the cenotaph is expected to be in place by the summer of 2017, said Canadian Forces spokeswoman Lt.-Cmdr. Diane Grover.

“The KAF Cenotaph was repatriated from Afghanistan at the closure of our combat mission and is currently in storage,” she said. “As a powerful memorial to those who died in the service of Canada, it will be placed on display for viewing by the friends and families of the fallen, the defence team and the public.”

Grover said an analysis concluded the cenotaph would not be able to endure long-term exposure to the elements so it will be housed within a new structure. That building will be a 12-metre by 25-metre pavilion, according to DND documents produced last year and obtained by Postmedia. The cenotaph weights about 225,000 kilograms, the documents noted. An artist’s concept prepared for the DND shows a glass enclosure around the cenotaph.

Grover said that because it is expected the cenotaph will be within a secure area of the new headquarters complex, details need to be worked out about providing access to the public and families of the fallen.

Over the next several years, the DND will transfer about 8,500 military and civilian employees to the former Nortel Campus on Carling Ave. Some employees and military personnel are already working from the site.

The cenotaph at Kandahar airfield became a symbol for many Canadians of the losses during the Afghan war.

Canadian Forces personnel and Afghan employees built it in 2006 and added to the monument over time. On the cenotaph are 190 plaques that honour Canadian Forces members who died as well as Foreign Affairs official Glyn Berry, Calgary Herald journalist Michelle Lang, and Marc Cyr, a civilian from a company under contract to the DND. Other plaques honour U.S. military personnel and a civilian member who died while serving under Canadian command.

The granite plaques are etched with the photographs of those who died.

The military has the original drawings for the cenotaph as well as photos and video to help in reconstructing the monument in Canada. The cenotaph is in storage at an Ottawa warehouse.

In 2011 a military working group recommended the cenotaph be located on DND property at Dow’s Lake in Ottawa.

At the time three Ottawa venues were considered the most serious options as a home for the cenotaph: Beechwood Cemetery, the new DND campus at the former Nortel site and the Dow’s Lake property, according to a July 2011 briefing note prepared for then army commander Lt.-Gen. Peter Devlin.

“When weighing the criteria, the Memorials WG (working group) considered Sanctity to be the most important, followed by Visibility and Accessibility,” Devlin was told in the documents obtained by Postmedia.

The Dow’s Lake option came out on top, followed closely by Beechwood Cemetery, according to the briefing.

The Memorials working group acknowledged that although their recommendation was for Dow’s Lake, a different method to rate the criteria for a location “may be preferable, for reasons not apparent to the Memorials WG.”

The briefing note pointed out that, in the early stages of the evaluation process, one general said Beechwood Cemetery was his favourite option, while another preferred the Nortel site.

In an email to Postmedia in 2011, the DND noted that the cenotaph would be unveiled in 2014. But military sources said that delays in rebuilding the monument in Canada were expected.

OTTAWA — Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr promised the Liberals would “get it done,” but refused to provide further details, as Conservative MPs grilled him Monday over whether the government plans to move ahead on a national Afghanistan war memorial.

The heated back-and-forth on the floor of the House of Commons came after the minister’s office told the Citizen last week that the government had not decided whether to proceed with the Afghan memorial or another devoted to Victoria Cross winners.

“We do have a duty to honour and respect those men and women who have served in Afghanistan,” Hehr said in response to a question from Conservative defence critic James Bezan.

“We’re going to be working closely with those men and women who served as well as the organizations who want to see this project go forward. I ask the member to give us time. His government couldn’t get it done in 10 years. We’ll get it done.”

The previous Conservative government announced the National Memorial to Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan in May 2014. The project, pegged at about $5 million, was intended to honour the 40,000 Canadians who had served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014, including 158 who died.

The Tories re-announced the project — along with a separate memorial for Canadians who had won the Victoria Cross — last year. A site for the two memorials was chosen halfway between the Parliament Buildings and the Canadian War Museum.

Hehr said Veterans Affairs Canada is working closely with Heritage Canada “to advance this initiative.” But the minister refused to provide more specifics, including whether the memorials will be included in the upcoming budget.

Conservative veterans affairs critic Alupa Clarke accused Hehr of obfuscating since the latter took over the veterans file last November.

“This House has been sitting for four months already and yet the minister has not been able to give me one real answer regarding the veterans,” Clarke said. “We are talking about memorials for veterans. Will the Liberals honour our commitment to the Afghanistan memorial in the upcoming budget? Yes or no?”

“The Conservative government demonstrated its commitment to recognizing the sacrifices of our Canadian Armed Forces by closing nine Veterans Affairs offices and by cutting 800 front-line workers,” Hehr shot back. “We will treat our veterans with care, compassion, and respect. As well, we will take their commemoration forward in a dignified fashion.”

Hehr was asked at one point about his government’s decision to pull the plug on a $5-million program, also set up by the Conservatives, that helped local communities build their own war memorials. Conservative associate defence critic Pierre Paul-Hus asked if the Liberals had consulted stakeholders first.

“This government understands the importance of commemoration and recognizing the men and women who have served in our armed forces,” Hehr said.

“We will treat them with care, compassion and respect, not only getting them the services they need but also the commemoration they deserve. We will not continue with the (former veterans affairs minister Julian) Fantino follies of the last 10 years, and will do things better on this side of the House.”

I'm thinking our MVA only speaks , when forced to , this on Veteran topics.

Perhaps it's because he wants to limit subjects on Veterans until the budget is brought out , but if you look at his Facebook , he is all over the place speaking an writing on everything else but Veterans.

Veterans and legionnaires working to build and improve community cenotaphs will be disappointed if they go to the Veterans Affairs website looking for help. “Thank you for your interest in the Community War Memorial Program. We are no longer accepting new applications,” it says.

That is right: A program that has helped build at least 99 veterans’ monuments in communities across Canada is on the chopping block.

Fast-growing younger communities such as Riverside South and Findlay Creek may eventually need assistance to construct cenotaphs where school children and veterans can go to honour those who served. Just a few years ago, the Ottawa community of Metcalfe relied on matching funds to add the names of previously omitted First World War soldiers to the village cenotaph. However, with the cancellation of this fund, similar projects will no longer have access to matching federal money.

In a recent review of the program now being cut, the Veterans Affairs Department found it “is effective, provides good value for money, and is administratively efficient and economical.” It also found that the program came $2 million under budget over five years and that for every dollar in taxpayer money committed, communities raised another $2.80.

The government says it wants to create jobs through infrastructure. Monuments are infrastructure. In fact, the Veterans Affairs Department report on the program said building these monuments generated 115 jobs, and “created local economic activity in many small communities.”

So why end the program? Apparently, the Liberal government does not like military symbols, such as cenotaphs.

The article claims the same reasoning may lead the government to cancel a planned monument to the 40,000 men and women who served and the 158 soldiers who died fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, Canada’s longest ever military mission – a mission the previous Liberal government launched.

That is disgraceful. These monuments are symbols of the thousands who gave all so that we could enjoy the blessings of freedom. They paid the ultimate price – and the cenotaph fund was a tiny price to pay in return. In the end, it only cost $600,000 per year, which is not even a rounding error given the government’s current spending spree.

In fact, the government of Canada spends, on average, about $600,000 a minute, every minute of every day. Maybe the people who made this terrible decision should take a minute (or better yet a moment of silence) to rethink this decision. Lest they forget.

That's the issue Navrat. Money is budgeted every year for memorials to either repair or construct. Right now the Libs want to take away the money promised for an Afghan memorial because it was the Cons who started the wheels in motion to create a memorial.

Politics should never be involved when erecting a memorial for Canada's veterans. Especially for a war of 10 years that Canada was involved in.

Thanks Trooper. I do know that VAC has a very substantial budget for cenotaph/memorial repair and creation. I gathered info for a monument here where I live for Peacekeepers and VAC's biggest rule for creating a monument is they have to see the plans and finance's first. And seeing as how they are talking to Hehr then I would say VAC is financing a large portion of this monument.

Don't know if the $5 million was coming from the VAC funds , but this latest monument to the Canadian mission in Afghanistan is linked to both our former MVA an our current MVA.

Here's more on it ;

MPs speak about a monument to the mission in Afghanistan

Two former Conservative ministers want the Trudeau Liberals to commit to building a monument to Canadian soldiers. Former Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O'Toole and former Minister Responsible for the National Capital Commission, Pierre Poilievre, are responding to a PostMeda report that said the monument to the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, which was announced by the Conservatives in 2014, was potentially on the chopping block. PostMedia reports that current Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr's office has still not decided whether to proceed with the memorial. Poilievre says it's the government's responsibility to honour the 40,000 Canadians who served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014. 158 Canadians were killed in the war.